There are many forms of fish scalars, however, most are designed to “scrape” via brute force the scales from a fish by running a straight blade across the scaled surface of the fish to physically dislodge the scales. Looking at the prior art in this area in U.S. Pat. No. 4,162,558 to Rubio, disclosed is a fish scaler tool that connects to a rotary drill that is basically a helically fluted drill bit with serrated edges on the flute edges, thus using the drill to help with the hard to remove scales issue.
Further in the fish scale prior art in U.S. Pat. No. 4,258,452 to Adcock, et al., a method and apparatus for scaling a fish by hand is disclosed wherein the apparatus includes a handle and a scraping element connected to the handle. The scraping element in Adcock includes at least one row of serrated teeth projecting from a surface of the scraping element and a relatively large water conducting tube is fixed with respect to the handle, plus at least one relatively small tube projects from the relatively large water conducting tube and is positioned on the scraping element adjacent to the at least one row of serrated teeth. The relatively small tube in Adcock includes a plurality of angled holes from each of which a jet of water issues to wash the fish being scaled and a valve in the relatively large water conducting tube permits a user to regulate a flow of water through the large tube.
Continuing in the fish scaler prior art in U.S. Pat. No. 4,432,117 to Iskiw, discloses a manually operated fish scaler includes a casing containing an electric motor, a transmission for changing the rotary motion of the motor drive shaft into longitudinal, reciprocating motion and a blade holder for connecting the transmission to a blade, which includes a transversely extending cutting edge for dislodging scales from a Fish.
Next, in the fish scaler prior art in U.S. Pat. No. 5,232,395 to Rushing discloses block-type body member has a handle on the top thereof and a depending flange on the bottom with the flange is curved outwardly and terminates in a sharpened wavy cutting edge capable of moving under fish scales for removing the scales when the device is rubbed against the fish. In a first embodiment in Rushing, the cutting edge extends around the outer defining portion of the body member and in another embodiment the cutting edge depends from triangular bottom wall areas disposed inwardly of the outer defining portion of the body member and the handle has a recessed fit in the body member and preferably comprises a semi-resilient material providing a good grip on the device.
There remains a need for a more complete system for making the fish scale easier to remove by having blades, channels, and cutters that work together to lift, separate, and remove the fish scale.